Sam,
Sometimes it is not the person with the virus on his/her computer that sends
it, it is the virus itself.
Some of the more frequent virii will send out e-mails to everyone in a
person's Outlook address book without the owner of the machine even knowing.
I received one such from a person that I had had only a few contacts with.
It was one of those, "Wow! Take a look and my web site!" virii. I "looked"
at the attachment and sure enough it was a virus. I alerted him by e-mail
and he took care of it. BTW, that virus was sent to 15-20 addresses taken
from his Outlook address book.
An analogy to the example you used, this is like having a loaded pistol and
when you were not at home, it started firing and hit a person on the street
or in the next apartment. The "fault" would not lie with you, but with
either the manufacturer of the pistol or the manufacturer of the ammunition.
But to answer your subject question: It seems that M$ makes it so easy!
Roger Turk
Tucson, Arizona USA
Sam Heywood wrote:
. > Hello:
. > Does anyone know why there are so many email viruses going around?
. > I know it is a very serious criminal offense to send anyone a
. > virus by email. Also victims may sue for civil damages. I hardly
. > ever hear of any prosecutions. Why don't they crack down and put
. > a stop to this crime?
. > Oftentimes a culprit who can be clearly identified will send
. > a virus to everyone on his mailing list. The authorities will
. > often simply accept his excuse that he didn't know that his machine
. > was sending out viruses. The only action they will take will
. > usually just consist of some friendly advice and a safety lesson on
. > how to avoid comitting such a horrendous mistake again.
. > If I were to accidently shoot some people and then try to explain
. > that I didn't know the gun was loaded, not even the best lawyer in
. > town would be able to beat the case against me. I will go to jail.
. > I will get sued. The victims will win.
. > The same ought to apply to people who explain that they didn't know
. > their computer was infected. There ought to be some very stern
. > punishments, but the punishment should not be as severe as those
. > applied against people for accidentally discharging a gun. In the
. > case of firing off a computer virus, the degree of endangerment to
. > others is lesser. Nevertheless, the damages that can be caused by
. > a computer virus can be quite costly and injurious to others. Such
. > irresponsibe behavior as the sending of email viruses, whether done
. > intentionally or not, should not go unpunished.
. > Sam Heywood
